Nonprofit Leadership

One of the things that I have seen happen repeatedly is that some Executive Directors truly “fall in love” with their agency and fail to adjust to the needs of the stakeholders. One of the things that nonprofits need to do is to learn from the

ReferencesRobert D. H. & Associates (2005). THE JOSSEY-BASS HANDBOOK OF NONPROFIT LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The variety of resources available for financing nonprofits may seem overwhelming and unmanageable, especially to someone looking in form the outside. The publication Financing Nonprofits: putting theory into practice (Young, 2007) addresses not only the variety of resources that are available but also the challenges of managing multiple revenue sources. This paper presents a brief reflection on some of the ideas presented in the publication.

Most nonprofit agencies follow the same management structure. The structure normally consists of a vertical hierarchal structure with the chief executive manager at the helm, and divisional leaders rounding out the strategic leadership team. Since 9/11, then government shutdowns, multiple wars, natural disasters, and the government sequester, the challenge to most nonprofits is to compete for every available charitable dollar. Chief Executive Officers (CEO) of nonprofits must not only be skillful in maximizing the outcomes with fewer dollars, but also politically savvy in vying for monies for federal, state, local, foundation, and private funding sources.

When Zoot Velasco looks at American nonprofits, he sees a sector that is struggling, in spite of limitless potential for innovation and impact. Noting that 22.3% of the country’s GDP is in the nonprofit sector, yet only 20% of such organizations have a budget exceeding $1 million, Velasco hopes to lead a transformation in the industry.

The Alliance for Better Nonprofits (ABN), located in the Regas building in Downtown Knoxville, exists to provide resources, training, consulting, networking, and standards of excellence for nonprofit organizations in the 25 counties of Upper East Tennessee (What We Do, 2017). The remainder of this paper will discuss the personal interaction I had with Alliance employees during a visit, as well as the services and opportunities the Alliance offers the nonprofits in the community.

Working in nonprofit is gratifying and at the same time challenging. As an administrator for a major nonprofit organization, I have witness first-hand the effects of staff retention and excessive turnover and its effects on the quality of service provided to clients and the increase in the cost of recruitment. However, recent data support how nonprofits continue to experience growth, while the private sector remains stagnant. Per the nonprofit quarterly the steady growth of nonprofit was estimated at 14.4 million people in 2013. In 2003, nonprofit organizations paid an estimated $425 billion in wages. Ten years later, in 2013, total nonprofit wages had risen to $634 billion. This increase in paid wages represents a growth of 49.2 percent (Nonprofit

In a nonprofit organization, managers are concerned with “generating some social impact” (Daft, 2013). Stakeholders for nonprofit organizations include the community, taxpayers, the government, private donors, employees, and volunteers. Each one of these stakeholders poses a challenge for managers. For instance, in a nonprofit organization, there is a “continual struggle to pursue vital social missions in the face of

There are several different types of nonprofit organizations, some are big and some are very small. I have interviewed an employee of a large nonprofit in the past. However, for this interview I chose a small nonprofit to gain a different perspective and to apply the organizational communication concepts we have learned in class. A career choice that I am considering, is in the field of nonprofit organizations. For this reason, I chose to interview June Early the Executive Director of Safe Alternatives For Everyone (S.A.F.E.), in Temecula, California.

In chapter one, Migliore et al. discuss how planning strategically can increase the efficiency and growth of nonprofit firms. Migliore et al. further list five areas that promote this process: 1) The adoption of successful business practices from the for profit sector to nonprofit firms, 2) improvements each year in managerial and planning practices, 3) pro-active leaders who believe that planning strategically is necessary, 4) nonprofit firms who learn from their past mistakes, and 5) preplanning activities that offset

Through the years, marketers have invented ever-more sophisticated ways to develop organizational position statements. Lots of these methodologies work, and you can spend big money with consultants on finely crafted and focus-group-tested positioning statements. At the same time, for nonprofits, the simpler approach advocated by the marketing savant Harry Beckwith may achieve much the same result at considerably lower cost and effort. I think of Beckwith whenever I find myself confronted with a classic “elevator test” moment. You strike up a conversation in an elevator, on the subway, in the line at Starbucks and the question soon arises: What do you do? The challenge is how to answer that question in an interesting, compelling manner that invites further questions about your organization, but that does not bog down in jargon or too much detail. You don’t have much time — maybe two sentences at most. So what do you include? What do you leave out? What’s your answer to the elevator test? Lest you think this exercise trivial, recall that everyone on the staff of your nonprofit gets asked the “what do you do?” question, in various forms, every day. In that sense, everyone on staff is a marketer, albeit rarely trained as such. Do you know how your staff is responding? Do you have any

A non-profit organization cannot be effectively managed if it is not effectively planned. One of the challenges facing non-profit organizations has been long range, strategic planning. Long range, strategic planning in the non-profit sector is essential to the success of an organization. Long range, strategic planning encompasses broad policy and direction setting, internal and external assessments, attention to key stakeholders, the identification of key issues, development of strategies to deal with each issue, decision making, action and the continuous monitoring of results. (Herman, The Jossey-Bass Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management, 154) While it is important to deal with the short term planning and activities of non-profits, managers or directors must consider the future of their organizations. Successful planning should be comprehensive, integrating all areas of responsibility of an organization.

Financially healthy nonprofits use income-based, rather than budget-based spending which allows them to have income projections that are realistic and helps to determine realistic costs (Zietlow, Seidner, 2014). The most successful nonprofit should have an operating reserve to finance shortfalls and hopefully allows them to have a positive cash flow at the end of the year (Zietlow, Seidner, 2014). However, most nonprofit organizations fight to manage cash flow due to how income and the expenses often may occur at different times, so that there may not be enough cash to pay for the expenses as they become due and payable (Zietlow, Seidner, 2014).

The diversity of nonprofit organizations, services provided and the problems faced shows that nonprofits require leadership with an in-depth understanding of the multifaceted nonprofit landscape. Understanding the culture of nonprofit work is also crucial and much easier to understand once you have been through a nonprofit management program. My career interests lead me towards an avocation of a deeper knowledge of strategic management/planning, legal structure and standards, increase my skills in quantitative analysis of policy, financial governance and developing fundraising strategies. These areas allow for macro management within the nonprofit

In our great nation, nonprofit organizations have played a critical role in helping people in need by providing education, training, residences, counseling, and in‑kind and cash support. Our nations has called upon nonprofit agencies, to take the leading role in American society in addressing social problems. Their belief in the efficacy of nonprofits combined with the current political and financial constraints on government spending, suggests an even larger service role for nonprofit organizations. We know that politics is complexed in its operating environment. There is a real danger when we choose to ignore the complexity of government and how it